Promotion to 4-A Compels Taft to Diversify Offense

With only a few minutes remaining in Tuesday morning’s football practice at Taft, a car skidded to a screeching halt on Ventura Boulevard. Like someone freezing up during an earthquake, players stopped in mid-stride and winced while waiting for the inevitable sound of breaking glass. The smell of burning rubber soon wafted through the air.

Yet the car avoided its road hazard, and the Taft coaches and players returned to the task at hand: taking a team whose ground game came out on top in most collisions in 1987 and making the transition to a balanced attack.

Coach Tom Stevenson barked orders at the team, constantly admonishing players that Taft’s move from the 3-A to 4-A Division would not be an easy one.

“We’ll have to be better, with better discipline and better preparation,” he harped.

At the 3-A level, Taft burned rubber with the best of them. The Toreadors averaged 270 yards a game on the ground and finished 8-3 last season, tying for the title in the now-defunct Sunset League at 4-1. Foremost in everyone’s mind is the prospect of playing Servite, San Fernando, Kennedy and Granada Hills on consecutive weeks, starting Sept. 23. The latter three are Northwest Valley Conference games that Stevenson says are prime examples of why Taft must throw the ball more often.

With its quarterback and starting receivers back, the transition should be smooth, as evidenced by the team’s performance in the 7-on-7 passing competition of the L. A. Games over the summer, in which Taft knocked off Carson and finished second.

Senior quarterback Rich Cosentino’s targets include tight end Adam Zutler and receivers Uda Walker and Doug Kougher. All four are returning starters.

Should Stevenson succumb to the urge to make the ground rounds, he can do so with Kelvin Byrd. The team’s leading rusher last year, Byrd gained 1,168 yards in 174 carries (6.7 average) and scored 11 touchdowns.

In his fourth year, Cleveland Coach Steve Landress has dressed up the offense by adding a few more surprises. Instead of last season’s drop-back passing game, senior quarterback Lee Gatewood--a defensive back in ‘87--will use his superior speed on roll-out and option plays.

When Gatewood makes the pitch, he will have a trio of talented running backs--Sean Burwell, Mark Mooney and Pat Bryant--from which to choose.

Cleveland, which won four of its last five games to end the 1987 season--including a 17-14 upset of Banning in the first round of the 4-A playoffs--has 20 returning lettermen.

El Camino Real has two new coaches--Ralph Stam and Mike Maio--but many of the same problems, namely, attracting the kind of talent that helped the team to 4-A Division championship games in 1977 and 1980.

Last season’s high point was a 26-26 tie with San Fernando. Even though El Camino Real was winless, the Conquistadores finished fourth in the Valley League at 0-2-2 and advanced to the playoffs where they were beaten by Carson, 39-12.

Senior quarterback Steve Smith, a backup last year, is the team’s most experienced skill-position player. Leo Matsuda and Bobby Kim are the starters at running back.

Last season, after a 33-0 nonleague thrashing of Cleveland, Canoga Park Coach Rudy Lugo was remarkably low-key.

“I’ve been on the other end of a few of these,” Lugo said afterward. “I know what it’s like.”

He might soon take a refresher course. Canoga Park lost its best returning player--quarterback Del Marine, who passed for 843 yards and 6 touchdowns as a junior.

Marine transferred to El Camino Real over the summer to play baseball.

WEST VALLEY LEAGUE Predicted Finish 1. Taft (6-3) 2. Cleveland (5-4) 3. El Camino Real (2-7) 4. Canoga Park (1-8) Predicted records in parentheses.